When the time came to determine the future of Germany's colonies, Woodrow Wilson insisted on a system of mandates that would, at least in principle, require that they be governed for the benefit of their inhabitants.

Africa had been known in Europe as the "Dark Continent." It was merely an obstacle to get around on the way to Asia, then a source of slaves, and finally a territory to exploit. Europeans took it upon themselves to educate Africans, but then educated Africans began to wonder why they still didn't have the same rights.

In the aftermath of the Russian Civil War, Lenin introduces the New Economic Policy, the USSR is organized, and prominent Socialist Revolutionaries are prosecuted for treason. Lenin falls ill in 1923 and dies in early 1924.

The October Revolution led to the brief emergence of independent nations of Armenia, Georgia, and Azerbaijan for the first time in centuries, but their independence was not to last. Also, we look at the early days of post-Civil War Russia.